i feel like a lot of Hilson Content that i do see (whether it be text posts or edits or even just like. memes) seems to be subscribing to a dynamic between house and wilson which does not in actuality exist between them, but is essentially the dynamic between house and cuddy. like the ship you actually want is right fucking there. and it’s even canon. but you don’t like women so
i write about thirteen's character all the time but in truth, none of that truly explains why she's captured my imagination over the years. so i'll take a different tack and explain why thirteen is a necessary counterweight to the show's familiar narrative.
every week, the show forces patients into situations where they have to accept increasingly risky tests for a chance at survival. giving up is not an option. house berates rebecca that there is no such thing as death with dignity, he violates dnrs, he tricks ezra powell into one last diagnosis. and after all that, there is an answer (and usually a cure) at the end of the tunnel. it's a neat narrative. it's fun, comforting. but that's not how life is.
enter thirteen. she--while auditioning for a diagnostics fellowship, no less--tells house that she doesn't want to know her diagnosis. and the show presents her as right! sometimes, there is no power in knowing, and house's manichean insistence otherwise is a self-justifying rationalization. during her self-destructive arc in season five, thirteen asks why she shouldn't do whatever the hell she wants and no one can come up with a good answer. foreman offers up the drug trial but despite his best efforts, he cannot fix her. in life and in medicine, sometimes there's no just reward for making the hard choices.
when thirteen leaves the show in season seven, she leads the team (and the show leads the viewer) to believe that she's going for another drug trial--a plotline that would fit in the show's familiar narrative of risk and reward. but no. instead, the show unfurls a much stickier story: her brother wanted to give up and she aided him. that act of destruction is one of the purest acts of love ever depicted on the show.
thirteen's story is like a dark undercurrent beneath the explicit narrative of the show: when knowing doesn't help, when there are no hail mary passes to be had, when giving up is the bravest thing you can do. the show would be so much flatter without it.
You said, "shirt that says ask me about house md 6x06 known unknowns" so- this is me .. asking you about house md 6x06 known unknowns. Please tell me everything you love and hate and find minorly annoying about that episode please and thank you ^_^
smiles bigly at you. thank you for asking. this post is going to be very long and i’m going to go from least to most important parts of the episode (to me, subjective) as to keep myself on track in some way lol. this ended up being quite long so i'm going to put it under the cuttttt
first of all. the cinematography is insane in this episode. i know everyone loves that scene with house and wilson on the dock at sunset and yes it is beautiful but it’s far from being the only notable shot in the episode. the show really uses the fact that they’re in a new location as much as they can; the dance scene, the outside scenes, even just being in the hotel with the gang feels sensational because it isn’t the hospital. i really like the amount of far away shots there are. it feels very film-like. my huddy movie. it’s very pretty ok.
i actually think the patient storyline is pretty interesting :) i like the patient and i like the circumstances of her illness and her inconsistent storytelling. i think it’s pretty strong unlike a lot of the later seasons’ patient storylines. and the og3 are working together on it!! come on!!! i love seeing them together i love seeing the emotions festering between camchase… it’s so dramatic but also it’s kinda nothing in comparison to the dramatic a plot with huddy so i often forget it until i watch it, so it’s a treat. i'm sure someone who's more into camchase than i am could say a lot more about them in this episode. i really like the ending with them.
rachel’s there :) and her being there is kinda loadbearing on the plot of the episode? like she’s as important as a 1 year old baby can really be so good on her. i always love seeing cuddy being a mom in practice rather than in theory, as she is most often. like yeah she WOULD get kicked out of something for having rachel with her. she WOULD consider her when picking a partner. house WOULD think offering to babysit would be a huge gesture… this is tackled a bit more in s7, but i really like when the show highlights how cuddy’s life is literally just work and rachel; those are the only two things that really matter to her. idk how to describe it, or how to describe what the show does with it here specifically, but i appreciate it, because sometimes it can feel like the show forgets that cuddy has a kid at all.
the wilson side plot in this episode is unsurprisingly completely uninteresting to me, sorry! i think wilson doing something kinda-noble yet ultimately far more self sacrificing and idiotic in an attempt to make himself feel better about who he is and what he does is a very predictable plotline for him. which isn’t an entirely bad thing, per se. i just think that with the sheer amount of drama happening in this episode (it’s one which a lot of people noted as falling into more of a ‘soap opera’ format and i have to agree), it loses a lot of depth and it just feels kinda… thrown in to give wilson a thing to do. though i don’t think his presence is unwarranted, because his scenes with both house and cuddy are pretty good; the scene where he’s talking to cuddy outside of the conference, about house, is really really nice, and i think the same of his heart to heart with house near the end of the episode. what both of these things wrap back towards is this feeling of missed opportunity; wilson is here this entire episode, and he’s doing a thing, but the audience (hopefully) isn’t dumb enough to think that he’s here for a bigger purpose than just being the go-between/wall to bounce off of for house and cuddy. i think there’s a lot that could have been done with this side plot that just… can’t because the episode has bigger fish to fry. so wilson ends up feeling kinda like… why is james wilson the bus driver, almost. i kinda don’t understand why he needed his own plotline lmao. house drugging him and saving his ass was fun though #greghouseniceysmoments
we have, in Known Unknowns, the return of lucas. everyone should know at this point that i am a staunch lucas HATER. i think the choice to bring him back was a poor one and i think there were better ways to do what this arc does for house and cuddy without bringing back this character specifically, but that’s a topic for another post 👀 however, i work with what i have, and what i have here is an arc that is very interesting to me, despite the fact that lucas is a part of it. i love to don my hat that says “the only guy who understood the lucas arc”. i do it all the time. so as much as i hate that it’s lucas specifically, i think that this episode sets up the purpose of the lucas arc and makes sense of why it’s lucas pretty well.
the episode makes a great argument for why cuddy doesn’t think she can be with house currently — which will pay off at the end of the season — and a sub-par but reasonable one for why she’s with lucas of all people. it keeps the ongoing characterization of cuddy as someone who has a less than thriving social life (she finds her suitors through dating sites and now like… this) and further textualizes her desire for stability, for commonality, that could have been inferenced before. but at the same time, it’s pretty clear from the get that the show itself isn’t really rooting for cuddy and lucas, it doesn’t want you to root for cuddy and lucas. the show pretty firmly depicts lucas as an obstacle rather than an interest; we’re reintroduced to him after getting that huddy dance scene, after house coming up to try to make this gesture to cuddy, after house says he’s always been into her. the scene where house and wilson sit and talk to cuddy and lucas is awkward and uncomfortable — for cuddy, mostly, who seems to be fighting her instinct to bolt every time lucas opens his mouth. there’s far less romance between cuddy and lucas, and their relationship seems almost mechanical in comparison to the sparks flying with house and cuddy throughout the whole thing; something about cuddy’s talk of needing a guy who fulfills this need of stability and then house saying lucas looks like the type of guy who could do that… but there never being any actual love there… luddy, straight off the bat, exists to fulfill a function. the contrast between this and huddy’s moment on the dancefloor — filled with history and emotions so overwhelming cuddy has to flee — is stark. and it’s great! i really do think it’s great.
i think i’ve talked about everything. now i can talk about what’s really important: HUDDY!
the reason i love this episode so much is because of the huddy backstory. for something that’s been teased since season 2 but gleaned since even before… it pays off. it pays off tremendously. i love what we get for their backstory so much i don’t really care about how it further complicates the timeline WHATEVER. i think it’s kinda perfect. it builds upon what we already knew (they knew each other in university (2x03) and they had hooked up sometime in the past (3x16)) and gives us a delectable meal to chew on, in terms of making sense of their past relationship and how that affects them now, without providing so much detail that it feels pedantic. i understand how it can feel unwarranted and fan servicey to some people, but i think having a bit more knowledge about their past gives us (or rather, me, the huddy essayist) a much clearer view on how to contextualize their relationship now. for me, the details about their past completely recontextualizes their relationship in the present, and it’s something that’s been nebulously known for ever, and for that alone i think that it was necessary!
but i also love the dance scene in general :) house showing up in his fuckin costume… house saving cuddy from being flirted with by some dude… the song changing to time after time as soon as they get on the dancefloor… the fact that it’s FUCKING TIME AFTER TIME!!!! If You’re Lost You Can Look And You Will Find Me, Time After Time, If You Fall I Will Catch You I’ll Be Waiting, Time After Time. kinda the thesis statement for their relationship. it makes me crazy. cuddy’s outfit is so good and her Hair Is Curly (this means something to me). the fact that house admits he’s always been into her and he wanted a relationship from their very first night… cuddy fucking RUNNING AWAY… it’s kinda the perfect huddy scene imho
there’s something so great about how contrasting their viewpoints are here. house is, in this episode, trying to woo cuddy! he’s trying to prove to her that he actually does really like her and that he can be a stable guy for her. whereas cuddy is trying to avoid avoid avoid because of her Thing with lucas. but she still gets caught up in her dance (metaphorically and physically) with house anyway. they literally cannot escape each other. it’s so funny, it’s almost the inverse of Let Them Eat Cake in a way, with the not-confession-confession and the tender moments (not to mention ones that call back to their fling… the desk mentioned) and the last second killer of seeing the other with someone else… except this time the roles are reversed. and house isn’t as easily deterred as cuddy was back then, lol. house wants cuddy and he makes it clear later in the season that he won’t be deterred by lucas’ existence, but cuddy is, which is what complicates all of their charged moments in this episode, even before we know it. it’s just so juicy, so dramatic.
other huddy things to note:
house deciding to go to the conference only after he realizes cuddy is going, and cuddy checking in advance to make sure house wasn’t and freaking the fuck out when he does. it’s like… cuddy doesn’t trust either of them around each other post-Both Sides Now, and it’s sick. i love how much this season Remembers what happened there, despite the fact that it’s almost never directly stated. it affects how they both approach their relationship now in a subtle way that i really appreciate. but they also still joke around! they’re still flirty! i love that first scene with them so bad. i love the final lingering shot on cuddy biting her lip. it’s great.
house trying to go up and offer to babysit rachel… it’s such a sweet gesture and a beginning in a long line of rachel-based gestures he makes in an attempt to win cuddy’s heart and i just think that that is very sweet. the way to a milfs heart is free childcare. though this doesn’t turn out the way that house had hoped, i think the fact that he confessed to her, then went to wilson scrambling on what to do, and then offered to help because he wants to come off as The Stable Guy She Wants… it’s so good.
i think… we’ve finally reached the end. i probably have more to say that i’m just not thinking of currently, but these are all of my thoughts right now. i really love this episode. it’s so fun. there’s so much huddy.
with the rancid misogyny against Cameron and Cuddy in the house fandom you have to wonder if the reason people ignore Thirteen in these conversations is also some convoluted expression of misogyny
no i literally think this. thirteen was hated in some circles of the fandom back in the day (television without pity, parts of livejournal); she was a Cool Girl, a Mary Sue, a Creator's Pet. tumblr fandom has reclaimed her, but i think it's telling that it's mostly as Token Queer, she's the cool lesbian (i know she's bi, but she is Not allowed to be with men) who is sexy and fun and house's daughter and cool.
just as with cuddy, cameron, and stacy, thirteen's relationships with men are reduced or ignored or rewritten -- it's just that as she never dated house or chase, she doesn't get that vitriol; instead it's Platonic and Familial.
she also tends to be flattened into a generic Cool Girl (there are some that make her a Sad Sick Girl, but it seems to be a smaller percentage). her depth and flaws and character are reduced to Token Gay/Gay Awakening Trigger/Fun Daughter; she's an accessory to house or paperdoll cameron and not a character in her own right (when is her relationship, romantic or otherwise, with foreman ever discussed? chase, outside of a siblings headcanon meme? taub? kutner? she is shipped with amber and correctly, but why is it that 13's only fandom relationships are ... non-existent -- ie, she's close to house but not Like That -- or In A Queer Way With A Woman? why is she not friends with anyone???).
she isn't bashed, but... is she really that much better? or is it just that she's been adopted as the One Good Woman (Within Reason) by a new cadre of fans?
I guess what really bothers me about the prevalence of Hilson in the House MD fandom is the almost complete disregard people seem to have for Cuddy and her importance in House’s life. In many ways she was his first and oldest friend, and she was always his biggest advocate. And acting like there was nothing between them but toxicity and hostility blatantly ignores both their character arcs especially from the Season 4 finale on (but it really starts earlier, in Season 3). And what makes me laugh even more is that Wilson is like. The #1 Huddy fan. He knows there’s attraction between them, encourages both of them to reveal their feelings, tells House multiple times to ask her out, tells Cuddy “sitting near him and hoping isn’t gonna get it done,” even tries to get them back together after the breakup.
Idk. I think House and Wilson’s relationship is actually a lot more interesting viewed from the lens of male friendship, and Cuddy’s love for House is one of the life veins of the series, and no one talks about it :(
i really do wish fandom would internalize "house is not a reliable narrator." not just for the obvious reasons (he lies, he's mistaken, etc), but because so fucking often he'll say something as a joke, or say something that just isn't true, and fandom will go "oh, this must be a Canon Fact." like just love hurts alone!!
chase in love hurts: i dated a sub, it was kind of intense, i wasn't really into the things she was into. / house: [makes a joke about chase liking humilation] / fandom: chase is a canon sub with a humilation kink, got it
house in love hurts: cameron gets off on dying people and doesn't love anyone. / cameron in every episode with dying people: [intensely triggered and unhappy, either obsessive or avoidant but either way not having a good time] / fandom: cameron looooooves dying people, got it
there are SO MANY examples it truly drives me bonkers